Installing mac mini in car.

[Marmot02]

I was thinking of installing a mac mini with a 19" display in my 318is. What do you guys think about placement, wiring, ventilation concerns etc.?

[CrazyCoder]

Go search E36 Carputer in the Audio section, a couple of people have done this, and they actually make an adapter to put a 7" touchscreen where the climate control/stereo is, you just have to move the climate control down to where the sunglass cubby is.

Not sure if anyone has used a Mac Mini yet, though, but it'd fit pretty perfect in the glove box, eh?

[Paunocu]

I was thinking of installing a mac mini with a 19" display in my 318is. What do you guys think about placement, wiring, ventilation concerns etc.?

I think it is an excellent idea! You could link it to a touch screen and make it star trek style with all the noises, blips and buzzes too. Then you could control the car with the touch panel and at the same time scan for enemy ships in nearby sectors. Perhaps jumping to warp speed is not so far fetched once you use it to control turbos. The problem comes when trying to seduce 7 of 9.

[Bris328is]

why--I am confused---

you should drive the car and play on the computer at home--

please correct me if I am wrong:confused

[downeaster1]

why--I am confused---

you should drive the car and play on the computer at home--

please correct me if I am wrong:confused
This man says your wrong
http://artfiles.art.com/images/-/Sean-Connery---James-Bond-Photograph-C12150975.jpeg

[Volcom8190]

they put out alot of heat for such a small computer...i mean alot of heat...it runs hotter than our mac pro server in a small space

[davidb72]

That seems silly. Why would you do that?

[456meyer]

they put out alot of heat for such a small computer...i mean alot of heat...it runs hotter than our mac pro server in a small space

i think it sounds great. and to deal with the heat here is an application to make your internal fan run a bit faster. heat worries eliminated. http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23137

[jared318i]

would be pretty awesome. I'm just trying to find the cheapest way to put a 7in touch screen in my dash but no flip out deals a mounted one. take the climate controle put it in the sunglass holder then have room for a 7inch screen be nice.

[marineifra]

hell the benefits of a pc are nearly endless. dvd player for the kids...navigation for mom...mp3 player for all. games for traffic. blue tooth for cell phones. checking bf.c on the way home from work...

[Bris328is]

hell the benefits of a pc are nearly endless. dvd player for the kids...navigation for mom...mp3 player for all. games for traffic. blue tooth for cell phones. checking bf.c on the way home from work...
I am too busy driving-- I guess I am old school:)

[jared318i]

I'll agree with being busy while driving I dont even bother my stero once im off and going just cause I'm to busy unless im just goin down the highway. But it's nice to have navigation period. It's nice to have DVD player for all and any passangers. Also CD's would be a pointless thing once you had this in cause you buy your cd pop it in upload then your done. That would be nice.

[jared318i]

I was thinking of installing a mac mini with a 19" display in my 318is. What do you guys think about placement, wiring, ventilation concerns etc.?
where do you want the display?
I'd prob try to put the mac in the glove box and depeanding on how where you want the display on how you wire and mount it. The ventillation would be a job that would HAVE to be done not sure just yet how youd go about doin a good job on that.

[drtweak1992325i]

Reasons for having a PC in car (note i wish to do this too. a nice 7 inch touch screen): Hmmm...I have a 130 gigs of MP3's...how how many cd's is that? Moves. not on the road but if i'm just sitting around waiting or me and my gf are sitting at a park or something that'd be very nice. Traffic. How I HATE to get on a freeway and find out it is stopped 1/2 a mile later. on and the almighty mapquest! To many times do i get fustreated talking to people. and probably the biggest thing is that program for the OBDI & II that allows you to have real time Diagnostics of your car.

Just because we want a computer in our car doesnt mean we will be paying more attention to the computer than driving. making a playlist of a 1000 songs and hitting shuffle is better than swapping in 10 cds.

So which would you rather see someone doing? just sitting there driving or swapping in cds every 5 minutes?

[Bris328is]

its called XM---oh and by the way the MP3 compression destroys music-- wma keeps the origional content. If you can hear the difference then my post is falling on def ears:D

[eunit3357]

I have my ipod hooked to my headunit and its in my glove box so the head unit controls it. Its hard enough finding a damn song out of 2 million let alone checking bimmer forums. Really cool though, would look good. Im afraid it would be like my start button. I loved iut the first 2 weeks then was like ehhh ill just use my key. It has been removed since then. Cool idea though. 19 inch screen maybe be pushing it.

[SimonSingh]

Reasons for having a PC in car (note i wish to do this too. a nice 7 inch touch screen): Hmmm...I have a 130 gigs of MP3's...how how many cd's is that? Moves. not on the road but if i'm just sitting around waiting or me and my gf are sitting at a park or something that'd be very nice. Traffic. How I HATE to get on a freeway and find out it is stopped 1/2 a mile later. on and the almighty mapquest! To many times do i get fustreated talking to people. and probably the biggest thing is that program for the OBDI & II that allows you to have real time Diagnostics of your car.

Just because we want a computer in our car doesnt mean we will be paying more attention to the computer than driving. making a playlist of a 1000 songs and hitting shuffle is better than swapping in 10 cds.

So which would you rather see someone doing? just sitting there driving or swapping in cds every 5 minutes?

Oh man that's the best idea I've heard for a car-puter. What program do you use?

[AshamedGorilla]

you may want to check out this site for some ideas...

http://www.macvroom.com/
or more specificaly, http://www.macvroom.com/Macd-Ride-2006-BMW-325

Do 318's have a spot for a CD changer in the trunk? 'cause I think putting it there would be much better 'cause there's already mounting points and wiring for the sound system, all you have to do is run wires for the screen.

[firefirefire90]

That would be pretty cool if it could also hook up to your engines computer so you could see what is up. Like have it come out of the glovebox or something on a little pulley or something that will swing out to you, the driver.

And then maybe you can buy an Iphone, and then with the Iphone control the car like James, James Bond.

[carguy01]

I hope the link below helps. I bookmarked this page for future reference if I decide to make something like this happen. It's not a BMW, but may give you some good info. It almost seems like that computer is meant to be in a car's glovebox. Good luck

http://www.macvroom.com/node/56

[Marmot02]

Cool. Im now thinking of going with a macbook. mounting a dock in the trunk for it setting a lcd panel into the rear passenger side armrest. Still thinking about it. With the macbook I could undock it and be mobile. I commute to college and do most of my studying in the backseat of my car.